Health services offers online magazine

A new online health magazine is being offered by the campus health department in hopes that students will become better educated about common issues plaguing college students. Student Health 101 is a user-friendly, interactive magazine that first came out this summer and is currently in its second issue.

A new twenty-page magazine will come out at the beginning of each month, with each new issue covering a rotation of topics pertaining to a normal college lifestyle. The content of the magazine is pre-arranged by Student Health 101, a company consisting of a one-thousand member student advisory board and a medical advisory board, and is then edited at the discretion of Campus Health Services at Dordt College.

Beth Baas, director of campus health services, was supportive of the wide range of topics that is covered in the magazine.

“All the topics won’t appeal to every student at every time, but they will apply at certain times to certain students,” Baas said, noting the variety of themes in the issues.

The magazine is set up in a “perceived norm versus reality format,” with articles arguing against many common misconceptions concerning common college habits.

“For example, when it comes to partying, the perceived norm is that all freshmen should attend parties and get drunk, but in reality, many alternatives to alcohol are readily available,” Baas described, excited to show the students an alternative method of thinking.

The Student Health 101 magazine, along with an archive of their previous publications, can be accessed through the email sent out by the Campus Health Services to the Dordt student body at the beginning of each month. It can also be accessed through the Health Services section on the Dordt College Central website. The Campus Health Services took the students’ concerns into account when they chose these formats of distribution.

“I know that students do not like to be barraged with emails, so we don’t send them out weekly like recommended,” Baas explained.

“I know students cooking in the apartments. The recipes from Student Health 101 are healthy, quick, and pertinent to maintaining a healthy student life,” Baas said, elaborating on what kinds of things to expect from the magazine.

Baas hopes that the relevance of Student Health 101 will pique students’ interests, and they will use the content in the magazine to better their lives as students.

“Essentially, this is a service to students to get information out there and to make them more successful as students,” Baas said.